Quotes by Dianna Booher, CSP, CPAE Hall of Fame

“Communication
is the soul of management: analysis
and solid decisions translated into
clear messages that influence people
to act and feel good about their performance.”
—From Communicate
with Confidence®

“Communication is a life-or-death
matter. … Ask lawyers, engineers,
system analysts, or secretaries which
creates the most frustration and failure—the
technical art of their job or dealing
with people—and they’ll
agree on the latter. Samson of biblical
fame killed 10,000 Philistines with
the jawbone of an ass. Similar destruction
occurs on a daily basis with the same
weapon.”
—From Communicate
with Confidence®

“Small talk means having a
little loose change in your pocket.
Like quarters at a pay phone, dimes
at a gum dispenser, or dollars at
a toll booth, it’ll come in
handy when you least expect it. When
it comes to small talk, know when
to jiggle it, spend it, or save it.”
—From Communicate
with Confidence®

“An apology or acceptance of
an apology can be the glue that makes
teams work, makes managers productive
after a mistake, and enables leaders
to get up after they’ve fallen.”
—From Communicate
with Confidence®

“Most people enjoy giving advice.
Heartfelt advice about issues of vital
concern ooze out like so much salve
in a tightly compressed tube. The
difficulty comes in determining if
the person wants to be healed, anointing
the right sore spot, making sure the
medication is appropriate to the problem,
and recapping the lid after the initial
diagnosis and treatment.”
—From Communicate
with Confidence®

“The person with no conflict
on the job or at home should be mounted
and sold by Neiman Marcus in its one-of-a-kind
gift catalog. Conflict can result
from excellent work or poor work,
from good intentions or evil intentions,
from appropriate behavior or inappropriate
behavior, from praise or insult.”
—From Communicate
with Confidence®

“Accepting praise can be as
difficult as accepting a gift. You
wouldn’t want to insult others
by not accepting their praise.”
—From Communicate
with Confidence®

“Nagging has never worked.
Otherwise, those hearing it wouldn’t
have labeled it ‘nagging’;
they would have called it “reminding.”
Perspective marks the difference between
the two—speaker or listener.
If you’re to the point of nagging
(in the other person’s point
of view), the listener has tuned out.
It’s time to rewrite the script
because the other person is no longer
picking up the message.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“Conversations, in general,
are sometimes like Capote’s
faction—a mixture of truth and
fiction. That is, after they’re
over, everybody has a different viewpoint
on exactly what was said. When you’re
discussing serious, sensitive issues,
generally everybody has a viewpoint.
It’s only natural to see your
own viewpoints, conclusions, and interpretations
as factual or valid and those of the
other person as opinion and invalid.
The real ‘truth’ typically
falls somewhere in the middle.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“I’ve lost more sleep
over words than from any illness,
work, or obligation in my life. Words
that I wish I’d said and didn’t.
Words that I’ve said and wished
I hadn’t. Words that others
have said to me that cut deep. Words
that others didn’t say to me
that still managed to leave a hole
in my psyche. Words that rolled off
my tongue too quickly. Words that
I swallowed and held onto too long.
Words can change our lives forever.”
—From The
Worth of a Woman’s Words

“Whether watching
TV, the computer screen, or hard copy,
the mindset is the same: Have remote,
will surf.” Your job as a writer
is to make that kind of reading possible
by presenting your most important information
upfront and leaving to readers how much
or how little detail they want.”
—From E-Writing:
21st-Century Tools for Effective Communication

“The trend in today's e-commerce
falls between the two extremes: stuffed-shirt
writing and t-shirt writing. Like
our work clothes, the preferred writing
style has become business casual.
And just as the business casual dress
code has some people stumped, so has
the business casual writing style.”
—From E-Writing:
21st-Century Tools for Effective Communication

“Collectively, email and the
Internet have become the biggest boon
to our productivity—and bane
to our sanity. Email alone has added
an extra hour or two to our work day,
cluttered our minds with trivia, tempted
us to “talk” about everybody’s
business but our own, tried our patience
in attempting to unravel stream-of-consciousness
prose to come to a decision or take
action, cost hours in patching up
rifts caused by political minefields,
added guilt-induced stress about the
still “to be read” list
popping onto our screen minute by
minute—and threatened to serve
as fodder for lawsuits in corporate
embarrassments.”
—From E-Writing:
21st-Century Tools for Effective Communication

“Many reports, letters, or
emails are poorly written because
writers do their thinking on paper.
They have not considered a total project
or body of data, interpreted it, and
tailored it to the reader's purpose.
Often the first few paragraphs or
first few pages constitute a warm-up
drill. Writers pour out everything
on the paper and then come to a conclusion
while writing through the details.
Or worse still, the authors never
come to a conclusion but rather leave
the conclusion and interpretations
up to the readers.”
—From E-Writing:
21st-Century Tools for Effective Communication

“The most difficult part of
writing is getting a handle on the
project. Every time I tackle a new
book, I feel as if I'm looking at
a flopping catfish at the end of a
fishing line. The fish just hangs
there, flopping back and forth, daring
me to catch and unhook it without
getting finned. Hovering in exactly
the right position, I have to pin
the fins firmly to its side before
working the hook out of its mouth
and feeling it's all mine. So it is
with writing. A well-written e-mail,
letter, report, proposal, or manual
brings great satisfaction, but the
process is usually the pain.”
—From E-Writing:
21st-Century Tools for Effective Communication

“People have grown accustomed
to venting their spleen on the screen.
Writers sometimes forget that they’re
communicating with real people in
front of the computer screen. Lurking
in chat rooms also fortifies writers
with the feeling of anonymity. Flaming,
the practice of sending hostile e-mail
to those who irritate, also fosters
a sense of protection across the distance.
Tact doesn’t even enter the
sender’s thought process. This
feeling of anonymity sometimes spills
over into online writing to coworkers
and customers. The tone is often too
blunt, too brusque, or too negative.”
—From E-Writing:
21st-Century Tools for Effective Communication

“Passing on information is
not the problem. The problem is turning
information into communication. Sitting
through boring meeting after boring
meeting while somebody stands to the
left of a computer screen and narrates
a slideshow in a darkened room just
does not make the grade anymore—if
it ever did. Connecting with an audience
to push them to action or to a decision
takes a very different mindset and
skill than doling out data.”
—From Speak
with Confidence: Powerful Presentations
That Persuade, Inform, and Inspire

“Don’t be afraid to show
enthusiasm for your subject. “I’m
excited about being here today”
says good things to an audience. It
generally means that you are confident,
you have something of value to say,
and you are prepared to state your
case clearly. Boredom is contagious.
Audiences get it from speakers who
resist being “too emotional”
about their ideas and the outcome
of their presentation.”
—From Speak
with Confidence: Powerful Presentations
That Persuade, Inform, and Inspire

“People interact with their
computers, DVDs, TVs, cell phones,
home security systems, ATMs, and airline
check-in systems. Team members give
360-degree feedback to their peers
and supervisors. They send suggestions
to the senior executives by e-mail.
Suppliers survey clients to ask, “How
are we doing?” So when it comes
to presentations, audiences assume
that you will build in a two-way dialogue
and interactivity—that you will
not simply provide an information
dump and walk away, thinking you have
communicated and achieved your objective.”
—From Speak
with Confidence: Powerful Presentations
That Persuade, Inform, and Inspire

“A good emcee functions much
like a home page for a Web site. The
emcee greets the audience members,
grabs their attention, overviews succinctly
what the program is all about, establishes
credentials, serves as the thread
of continuity, provides transitions
between extended presentations, and
sums up with sponsor and contact information,
along with the appropriate “thank
you’s.” In short, being
a master of ceremonies takes skill
and preparation.”
—From Speak
with Confidence: Powerful Presentations
That Persuade, Inform, and Inspire

On Selling

“Prospect deep,
not shallow. Don’t jump to the
erroneous conclusion that every “no”
gets you closer to a “yes.”
That’s true only in theory, not
in reality. If you build a shallow prospect
list—with the quickest, easiest
contacts to find—you may be spending
your time calling all the wrong people
—the shallow fish—and getting
more than your fair share of no’s.
Instead, it’s typically worthwhile
to spend more time creating a deeper,
better prospect list from the start.
This way, it takes fewer calls to get
you to each yes.”
—From From
Contact to Contract

“Treat
gatekeepers like gold mines. A demanding
tone sets the gatekeeper in motion—usually
against you.”
—From From
Contact to Contract

“View prospecting as a game
you must win to help customers who
want to be found in the maze.”
—From From
Contact to Contract

“Like painting a portrait,
writing a blockbuster, or building
a house, building a life comes much
easier when you tackle it as a unified
project: growing your character while
you’re on the job, strengthening
relationships and influencing others
while you work in the community, becoming
a better mother as you struggle with
an ethical dilemma your committee
faces, building a closer friendship
as you work through a job difficulty
with your boss or client, serving
God through the opportunities you
gain from recognition at work. Self.
Relationships. Work. Parts of one
integrated, balanced life. As you
work on creating this masterpiece
called your life, you’ll want
to be able to say you’ve done
your personal best so that you can
sign your name to what you have lived.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“You do become the artist who
paints your own portrait from the
inside out—your character. You
paint it habit by habit, day by day,
line by line, shadow upon shadow.
Each conversation you have adds its
own color to the canvas. Each dilemma
carves a new dimension. Every decision
creates new depth. Failures and successes
give perspective. Over time, each
trait blends into the final character
profile.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“The canvas is yours. Your
character is ready for your creation.
It will be your most priceless possession.
You have final say about what goes
into it. After you’ve completed
it, no one can destroy it or alter
it. Once you sign your name to it
and leave your earthly studio, you
will always be remembered by this
final, distinctive work of art.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“I’d rather hold God’s
hand in the crowded highway of humanity
than float along alone in complete
freedom and chance stumbling to the
ground and getting trampled by the
traffic. Genuine faith is reassuring
and enduring.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“As you build your dream career
or do volunteer work, understand that
the process can be wearing at times,
but the payoff is powerful if you
keep your work in perspective. Don’t
let your work define you; instead,
let it refine you. Take ownership
of it. Be accountable for it. Sign
it with excellence.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“When building Your Signature
Work, understand that some parts of
the structure may not be what they
photograph for the Lifestyle section
of the Sunday newspaper. Nevertheless,
those parts—the door hinges,
the electrical system, the rafters,
or the water faucets—prove essential
just the same. When you’re working
as if God were your customer or your
coworker, service makes sense and
provides satisfaction on a deeper
level. When you’re faced with
doing the mundane, value the here
and now as well as the there and forever.
Focus on the why, not on the what.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“Your Own Signature Life is
a work in progress. You may be discouraged
by the difference between your vision
of your finished masterpiece and the
work you’ve completed thus far.
But don’t dwell on your failures,
unrefined skills, or undeveloped themes.
Instead, focus on the time remaining,
character still to be shaped, the
scenes still to be created, the design
still to be modified, and the building
still to be done. When your masterpiece
is completed, sign it with care. God
will be the final appraiser.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“Our philosophies about time,
aging, success, immortality, marinated
mushrooms, and the day-to-day hustle
show up in different ways in our lives.
Our thoughts about time affect everything
we do—our relationships, our
work, our successes. To be more specific,
our concept of time determines whether
we work late or go home to the kids.
Eat instant oatmeal or cook an omelet.
Wallpaper the closet or leave the
shelves unfinished. Arrive early or
late. Have surgery or accept the wrinkles.
Cry or laugh. Ignore or help. Despair
or hope. How we allocate our minutes
each day profoundly affects our career
success, our charitable work, the
quality of our personal lives, and
the gift of ourselves that we leave
behind for friends and family.”
—From Get
a Life: How to Find Time for the Important
Things in Life

“When you’re feeling
down, get away from everything that’s
artificial and open your senses. Touch
a tree. Roll in the grass. Smell the
rain. Watch the sunrise. Pet a dog.
Hear the crickets. Walk in the sunlight.
Shuffle in the snow. Face the wind.”
—From Get
a Life: How to Find Time for the Important
Things in Life

“Nothing
proves more crucial to the way your
life story unfolds than the relationships
you build along the way. And the essence
of all your relationships is your
conversations running end to end,
from the first to the final scene.
Listen willingly. Interpret perceptively.
Speak honestly. Phrase lovingly. Position
positively. Edit carefully. “
—From Your
Signature Life®

“You need to create chemistry
so that you and your other “cast
members” get along on the set
before a crisis occurs. Work to build
strong bonds. Then on days of torrential
downpours, the rains won’t affect
the turnout at your box office.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“As you build Your Signature
Work, the biggest trap to avoid is
falling into the murkiness of mediocrity
where the masses spend their time.
If your work habits tend to short
out, your clout and influence will
grow dim. But if your efforts reflect
excellence, your results will shine.”
—From Your
Signature Life®

“Friends don’t have to
say hello or goodbye. Like a neighbor
who pops in to borrow a cup of sugar,
you can pop back into my life in a
day or a year and it’s as though
we’ve never missed a beat.”
—From Fresh-Cut
Flowers for a Friend

“Instead of working to earn
something, work to become something.
Work to become fulfilled. Work to
become useful to others. Work to reflect
God’s character on earth. The
ideal job rarely exists in reality.
But you can build Your Signature Work
on a vacant lot very close to it.”
—From Your
Signature Life®